Hans Linkin' Andersen

• The Undefeated an amazing longread about the careers of several non-household name black actors from 1990s television series
• Coming Soon Ansel Elgort in talks to play fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen in an original screen musical composed by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked). The huge success of La La Land and Greatest Showman is already taking effect which is nice because we were worried it wouldn't.
• /Film Kristen Wiig in talks to play the villain Cheetah in Wonder Woman 2. Looooove this idea

• MNPP Armie Hammer getting his chest waxed. Nooooo
• The Guardian Casting for Quentin Tarantino's Charles Manson movie has begun. Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are officially returning to the director's filmography. Margot Robbie might be joining them. 
• Coming Soon Have any of you read the Witchers series of fantasy books? It's being adapted to Netflix series with several characters confirmed
• NPR profiles the three awesome Octogenarians up for Oscar this year: James Ivory, Agnes Varda, and Christopher Plummer
• TFE ...and in case you missed it, we just interviewed James Ivory
• Variety Chris Hemsworth may star in a Men in Black spinoff because no franchises die anymore
• Into Film inspired by Lady Bird, a list of 10 other great debut films by female directors.

Stage (Pssst. Tony Season is almost upon us)
• W Magazine Lee Pace sorta comes out... in that tortured 'I won't say it, but I'm saying it' Jodie Foster kinda way in this interview about taking on the Joe Pitt role in the revival of Angels in America
• Theater Mania Harry Connick Jr is now in rehearsals for the debut of a new musical based on Best Picture winner The Sting. It's going to premiere at New Jersey's Papermill Playhouse (which is a great place to see shows)
• Show-Score A list of all the current NYC stage shows offering lottery tickets (i.e. cheap seats for lucky winners) not that I want to give myself competition as I'm already losing Angels in America and Frozen daily. But these lotteries do actually send people to shows every single  day who couldn't afford it otherwise. I only ever enter sporadically (if I remember / am dying to see a show / friends visiting NYC etc) and I've won thrice over the years and seen West Side Story, Wicked, and Kinky Boots quite cheaply. Though I suspect it's harder to win now that all the lotteries are online instead of in person (i.e. less commitment to enter so way more competition).

Exit Video
Christine Baranski talks about filming Mamma Mia 2 and does a really bad Cher impression!

Biggest $$$ Hauls of 2017 In Multiple Categories

Each day a different year in review party. Here's Nathaniel...

It's time for a special box office report. Though the year was dire for most studios (at least until the final quarter) with moviegoing down, especially in the summer, there are always hits. The question is only how large and what motivates people to buy a ticket. For all the griping you hear about "everything is superheroes" or "another sequel?" the biggest hits are nearly always sequels or superhero films so the audiences only have themselves to blame in a way.

We've already looked at the top grossing foreign language titles of 2017 so now to the wider releases as well as other categories. We'll break it down into multiple top tens so that it's more interesting than sequels and superheroes. (All grosses are US domestic)...

Click to read more ...

My link runneth over

• Vanity Fair Carrie Fisher's best lines in The Last Jedi come from the actress/writer herself
• Rolling Stone David Fear's 25 reasons to love the movies in 2017
• Variety a "tsunami" of change in Hollywood. Netflix, MoviePass, sexual harrassment scandals, low box office. What's next?
• Vanity Fair Annette Bening, Whisper campaigns, The Last Jedi and more
• AV "TV Club" a lengthy but always engaging 17 part lookback at the year in culture and the small screen 

 

Much more after the jump including more "best of the year" lists, Strictly Ballroom, Hamilton, and female directors...

Click to read more ...

Will this year's Best Director Oscar race be the most diverse ever?

by Nathaniel R

from left to right: del Toro, Guadagnino, Wright, Peele, Jenkins, Rees, Nolan, McDonagh, Aronofsky, Baker, Spielberg, Gerwig, Scott, Bigelow, Coppola, Villeneuve

While I was updating the Oscar charts for Picture and Director it occurred to me that the Academy's directing branch could well come up with their most diverse shortlist ever. Generally speaking when the Best Director lineup has had some variations from its usual five middle aged white American directors it's been with older white European auteurs. But in the past twelve years things have been shifting for that category quite a lot despite frequent complaints that they aren't changing at all. Or at least that they're not changing fast enough.

Consider that the following things have all happened in the past twelve Oscar races:

Click to read more ...

Interview: Director Petra Volpe on Swiss Oscar Submission 'The Divine Order'

By Jose Solís

I don’t remember exactly what horrible thing the new US administration had announced it wanted to do the day I found myself walking into The Divine Order at the Tribeca Film Festival. I knew nothing about the movie and decided I’d give it ten minutes to capture my attention and help me escape whatever ghastly reality was shaping outside. I didn’t want to watch anything about war, genocide etcetera.

All I wanted was hope, and boy did Petra Volpe’s lovely film deliver...

Click to read more ...